World Championships 2025...
AJ Scott
is still 2.5 weeks away, the buzz surrounding it has already begun. Go
here to see the Player List:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3108.
And tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 9 am, they will hold the Draw
Ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams.
Beginning tomorrow, players will be able to see the draw and whom
they're playing against in the first round. And they'll have 2.5 wks.
to train for their early round matches. And this will be single
elimination only, so for a lot of players, the Worlds will be "one and
done."
AJ Scott
document:
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ITTF-Table-Tennis-World-Ranking-Regulations-20250422.pdf
If you scroll down close to the end, you'll see charts showing how many
points they will allocate for the World Championships and other major
events. Right now, Hugo Calderano is ranked 3rd in the world. If I'm
reading the charts correctly, it looks like if he wins the Worlds in a
coupla weeks, he will still stay at 3rd in the world.
AJ Scott
https://worldtabletennis.com/description?artId=4906 and
https://worldtabletennis.com/description?artId=4891
Again, this will start next Saturday, May 17 at 3 am here. The 1st
article above is announcing that the schedule for Day 1 & 2 have just
been released. The 2nd article is about 5 1st round matches they're
looking forward to.
Here's the link to the schedule for the first 2 days:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&eventId=3108&innerselectedTab=Scheduled
And here are some of the matches I'm looking forward to watching:
1. Hiroto Shinozuka vs. Xue Fei--table 2 at 5 am Saturday--this one
could be the match of the day if both guys show up ready to play
2. Ozge Yilmaz/Ece Harac vs. the Mukherjees of India--table 3 at 5 am
Saturday--Ayhika Mukherjee is my favorite chopblocker, but she's been in
a slump lately and Ece Harac (sounds like "EH-jay HA-ratch") appears to
know exactly how to play against pips/anti, so this one could be close
or could be a blowout.
3. Amy vs. Anna Hursey--table 5 at 6:20 am Sunday--Normally I would say
that this should be an easy win for Amy, but, last I heard, she's in
school and probably is unable to train seriously. That said, I still
think she has a chance to win this one despite the fact that Hursey is
playing her best ever now.
4. Lam Siu Hang vs. Ankar Bhattacharjee--table 6 at 7 am Sunday--On
paper, it would seem that Lam would be the easy winner here, but
Bhattacharjee, who I call "the boy-wonder of India", has gobs of
talent. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he were to pull off the upset
here
5. Yuan Jianan vs. YD Ghorpade--table 8 at 1:30 pm Sunday--short pips on
the fh vs. long pips on the bh. I actually think Ghorpade is
potentially the best chopblocker on the Indian Team--she just needs more
experience and she needs to learn how develop good tactics vs. each
opponent. Anyhow, Yuan has a tough serve. If Ghorpade can put that
serve back with "quality", she might have a chance.
6. Alexis Lebrun vs. Kokou Fanny--table 3 at 10:10 am Saturday--Kokou
Fanny ("co-COO fan-NEE") is familiar to those of us who live in the NY
area--he's one of the "Westchester Africans" as I call them--current and
former top Africans who play at the Westchester TTC here in New York
State. He's currently the Togolese no. 1, but Alexis Lebrun is in the
top-10, so I don't see that Fanny has much of chance against him. But,
the last time I saw a match of his, he was playing with long pips on the
bh, so maybe with that he can make the game interesting. As I mentioned
before, Alexis Lebrun is unfortunately in the same quarter as his
younger brother Felix, so, barring any upsets, they will meet in the
round-of-32. I really can't say enough how much I hate to see siblings
playing each other in the early rounds. I wish they could've put one of
them on the other side of the draw. I wish they would make that a rule
7. Quadri Aruna vs. Vitor Ishiy--table 6 at 7 am Saturday--On paper,
this should be an easy win for Quadri, but you never know with him.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have a steady coach and that might account for
the inconsistency of his play. I don't know how Quadri feels about it,
but I kinda wish his former teammate and sometime coach Segun Toriola
("shay-goon toady-ola") were in his corner more often--not just every
blue moon. I think Toriola should travel on tour with Quadri, but I
suspect that he's not being paid to do that, which is a shame. I think,
in general, Quadri plays best when Toriola is in his corner, but he
needs go on tour with Quadri so he can get some consistancy. It won't
work if it's just once or twice a year--as it is currently. Quadri is
in the top-20--you can't just show up and play at that level. You also
can't just show up and coach at that level either
Also, Kanak and Lily play next Sunday--Kanak vs. Guillherme Teodoro
("ghee-LAIR-me tell-DOE-ro" or "William Theodore" in English) and Lily
vs. Mateja Jeger ("ma-TAY-ya YAY-gair"--her last name, "Jeger", is a
Croatian rendering of the German name "Jaeger" or "hunter" in English).
Both should be easy wins, though Kanak's match could be a little harder,
but winnable nonetheless.
And lastly, one player on the women's side to look out for would be the
North Korean chopblocker, Kim Kum-yong, who took out both Sun Yingsha
and Harimoto Miwa to win the Asian Championships last fall. Given that
performance, you just have to consider her one of the favorites to win.
She's playing both singles and mixed doubles and you might remember
that, in the mixed doubles, she got a silver medal at the Olympics last
year, so she's definitely one of the favorites at this Worlds.
Oh, and another woman to look out for would be Kheith Cruz (I think her
1st name sounds like "Kate"), the Filipino no. 1 "woman" and "girl"
(U-19 junior). I've been watching her for the past coupla weeks in the
Youth Circuit and you just get the sense that she's due for a big win
soon, like, she's almost there.
Anyhow, one more week, and it's on! Can't wait!
AJ Scott
morning vs. Anna Hursey of Wales. Last week, I watched the European
U-21 Championships and it just so happened that Hursey was the 3rd seed
in the singles there. They were using European Youth rankings. Had
they used ITTF [senior] rankings, she would've have been the no. 1 seed
as she would've been the only player there ranked in the top-100 (at
77th in the world at the time). So, she basically waltzed to the final
and won. Anyhow, if Amy and Coach Gao are looking for video of Hursey
to study, then they should maybe take a look at the women's final here:
https://youtu.be/qsxzXXRMCTQ?t=23062. That's Hursey vs. Veronika
Matiunina of Ukraine, held this past Sunday morning in Bratislava,
Slovakia. The woman coaching Matiunina is none other than former
longtime Hungarian no. 1, Krisztina Toth (I think that sounds like
"Christina Tote"). I think in the singles, Hursey played 4 matches and
won 2 of them, 4-0, and the other 2, 4-1. Hursey is playing her best
ever, but I still say Amy has a chance--if she's been training...
On the other hand, the boys' semifinals and finals were hard-fought
slugfests. if you want to see some very athletic matches with lots of
heavy hitting, then you should watch the boys' semis and final. The
first semi was btw. a Spanish guy I wasn't familiar with, Miguel Pantoja
("me-GAIL pun-TOE-ha") vs. the top French junior, Flavien Coton
("flav-YAWN co-TONE"--"Coton" = "cotton" in English):
https://youtu.be/qsxzXXRMCTQ?t=6795. I see Coton in the top-20 in the
near future as the no. 3 Frenchman. He's that good.
The 2nd boys' semi was btw. a future top German, Andre Bertelsmeier, and
a future top Romanian, Iulian Chirita ("YOU-lee-on kee-REE-ta"):
https://youtu.be/qsxzXXRMCTQ?t=10708. This was a great match--just one
spectacular shot after another--about as hard-fought as a match can be.
In my humble opinion, the guy who lost in the end just ran out of gas.
And here's the final: https://youtu.be/qsxzXXRMCTQ?t=26090. Again, it
seemed to me that the loser just ran out of gas in the end.
Elsewhere in the news, there was a ranking update today that appeared to
be a ranking adjustment as there were some big moves amongst some of the
top players. For example, An Jae-hyun is now the South Korean no. 1
man, with Jang Woo-jin at no. 2 and Oh Jun-sung just a few places behind
them at no. 3. If Oh can score a few wins next week, he could end up as
the South Korean no. 1, like his father, Oh Sang-eun, was 20 years
ago--like father, like son. And Sabine Winter, now a chopblocker
(antispin/bh), has become the German no. 1 woman for the 1st time in her
career. And when you look at the rest of the German women's team, 7 out
of their top 10 players play with pips or antispin--just like the Indian
top 10 women. Speaking of the Indians, Sreeja Akula is now the Indian
no. 1 woman again.
And while we on the subject of chopblockers, that French kid I've been
following--the one who plays for Cameroon, Ylane Batix, is now the top
male chopblocker in the world at 107. With today's adjustment, he
passed Luka Mladenovic of Luxembourg who's now 116th in the world. And
the next chopblocker in the rankings is not far away at all--Amirreza
Abbasi of Malta (formerly of Iran) is currently ranked 121st in the
world. I have previously said that a Japanese female chopper, Ojio
Haruna, had the best defensive backhand in the Game. Well, I've had a
change of heart on that. Since she's not really playing anymore, I now
say Abbasi has the best defensive backhand in the Game. I think all
players who have pips or antispin on the backhand should take a step
back and study his backhand technique(s). It's amazing to say the least
AJ Scott
livestreamed on the WTT YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams [full videos],
https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/videos [highlight videos]. Here's the
schedule for tomorrow:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3108.
Doha is 7 hrs. ahead of us. One thing about the schedule--they are
playing one match right after the other, so it's entirely possible that
a match could start long before its scheduled time.
The top 10 men's seeds are Lin Shidong, Wang Chuqin, Hugo Calderano,
Harimoto Tomokazu, Liang Jingkun, Felix Lebrun, Truls Moregard, Patrick
Franziska, Alexis Lebrun and Dang Qiu. As for the top 10 women's seeds,
the top-4 are Chinese and the next 4 are Japanese: Sun Yingsha, Wang
Manyu, Chen Xingtong, Wang Yidi, Harimoto Miwa, Hayata Hina, Ohdo
Satsuki, Itoh Mima, Shin Yubin, and Cheng I-ching. Here's the full
player list:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3108&innerselectedTab=Scheduled
Penholders... On the men's side, it's the top 4: Felix Lebrun, Dang
Qiu, Xue Fei, and Wong Chun Ting. On the women's side, it's the top-2,
Shan Xiaona of Germany and Yu Fu of Portugal--both are traditional (only
hit with one side of the racket). In my humble opinion, the best
matches today all involved penholders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysVplVGliFI [Dang Qiu vs. Filip Zeljko]
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd0Ch8_DPyw [Xue Fei vs. Shinozuka
Hiroto]. Shan Xiaona also played a match that went the distance, but I
can't find a highlight vid for that one.
Pips-out/anti-spin players... On the men's side, Mattias Falck (short
pips/fh), Wang Yang (chopper), Amirmahdi Kesharvarzi (long
pips/bh--playing doubles only with Benyamin Faraji, a kid who upset Wang
Chuqin the last time they played), Panagiotis Gionis (chopper) and
Darara Dufera (Ethiopian chopper--he lost his 1st round match today). I
watched Kokou Fanny's match vs. Alexis Lebrun and it appears he no
longer plays with long pips on the backhand. As for the women, it's
many more: Itoh Mima (short pips/bh), Kihara Miyuu (short
pips-bh--playing doubles only), Suh Hyo-won (chopper), Manika Batra
(long pips/bh), Sreeja Akula (long pips/bh), Ayhika Mukherjee
(anti-spin/bh, short pips/fh--playing doubles only), her doubles partner
Sutirtha Mukherjee (short pips/bh--playing doubles only), Yuan Jianan
(short pips/fh), Han Ying (chopper), Zhang Mo (short pips/fh), Sabine
Winter (anti-spin/bh), Shan Xiaona (short pips), Kim Kum-yong (long
pips/bh), Linda Bergstrom (chopper), Yuan Wan (short pips/bh--she's
Sabine Winter's doubles partner), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Giulia
Takahashi (short pips/bh), Ivana Malobabic (chopper), Audrey Zarif
(short pips/fh), Zeng Zhiying (chopper), Jessica Reyes-Lai (short
pips/bh), Lilou Massart (short pips/fh), Zauresh Akasheva (short
pips/bh), Alice Chang/Chang Li Sian (chopper--lost today in singles,
still alive in doubles), Tan Zhao Yun (chopper), Markhabo Magdieva
(short pips/fh both sides? Playing doubles only), her doubles partner
Asel Erkebaeva (chopper--playing doubles only), Angelina Romanovskaya
(short pips/bh? Playing doubles only) and Clio Barcenas (long
pips/bh--playing doubles only). There's a lot of players I don't
recognize, so there may be someone I might have missed.
Americans... From Team USA, it's Kanak Jha, Liang Jishan, Sid & Nandan
Naresh, Lily Zhang, Amy Wang, Sally Moyland, and Jessica Reyes-Lai (won
today). From Team PR, it'll be Brian Afanador (won today), Adriana
Diaz, and Brianna Burgos (lost to 8th seed Itoh Mima today). Just about
all of them will play their singles matches tomorrow. The action starts
up again tomorrow (Sunday) at 3 am. The very 1st match on table 1 will
be a mixed doubles matches featuring Liang Jishan/Amy Wang vs. Wang
Chuqin/Sun Yingsha. Sally Moyland plays Ajoke Ojomu (pronounced
"ah-JO-kay oh-JO-moo") of Nigeria on table 4 around 3:40 am--should be
an easy win for Sally. Then Amy plays Anna Hursey on table 5 at around
6:20 am--could be a tough match for Amy as Hursey is playing her best
ever now. Again, Hursey played the European U-21 Championships last
week in Slovakia and made the singles final last Sunday--here's a
highlight video of it--maybe Amy & Coach Gao should take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpoCBlIczQQ.
Then Liang Jishan unfortunately has to play Lin Yun-Ju, the 14th seed,
on table 5 at 7 am. Then Sid plays Francisco Sanchi of Argentina at 7
am. His younger brother, Nandan, had to play the no. 2 seed Wang Chuqin
today and got clobbered. Anyhow, Adriana plays Filippa Bergand of
Sweden on table 2 at around 11:30 am--should be an easy win for Adri.
Then Liang/Sid play a HK pair at 11:30 am on table 7--a tough match.
Then Lily plays Mateja Jeger (pronounced "ma-TAY-ya YAY-ger"--in
English, her name would be "Mattie Hunter") at around 12:50 pm on table
2--should be an easy win for Lily. Then Kanak plays Guilherme Teodoro
on table 5 at 12:50 pm--could be a tough match that he should win.
I'll also be watching a lot of the other matches as well. The match of
the day tomorrow might be Harimoto Tomokazu vs. Lim Junghoon of South
Korea--to be played on table 2 at around 5:40 am. Again, that might
start earlier if the match before that, Hirano Miu vs. Sarah de Nutte,
finishes earlier--which it very likely will.
AJ Scott
A few big matches from yesterday:
1. Chew/Chua vs. Wang/Angelakis (offense vs. defense):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ux3nE-oPZM. Konstantinos
Angelakis (I think the last name is pronounced and also spelled
"Aggelakis") is a chopper who often pairs up with Panagiotis
Gionis, but this time he's with the Slovak chopper Wang Yang who's
very athletic. I get tired just watching him play. There's no
way in a million years I could play the game he plays.
2. Qian/Chen vs. Winter/Wan (China vs. Germany):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbc4W5NasZw -- Sabine Winter, now
the German no. 1 woman, is doing a shot that I've only seen rarely
over the years--the Reverse Shakehand Backhand, or RSB.
Penholders have their RPB or Reverse Penhold Backhand--Winter now
has the RSB. I haven't seen any discussion of this anywhere. She
switched the backhand rubber to anti-spin, but she still needs to
do a backhand loop, but she doesn't always have the time to
twiddle, so that's why she's doing this shot. She could end up
being the greatest German and European woman to ever play the
game. She just needs to open her mind and tell herself, "I can do
anything I want--any shot, anywhere, any time." She made some
spectacular shots in the match above vs. the Chinese--they often
had the look of shock on their faces.
3. Tom Jarvis vs. Dang Qiu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55GZUYWvBtg -- I don't pay much attention to English no. 2, Tom Jarvis, so I had no idea he was this good
Anyway, most of the Americans have been eliminated. The worst loss was Kanak Jha vs. Eduard Ionesco yesterday. Kanak seem to be cruising to an easy victory, going up 3-zip, then later, 3-1, match point, and then somehow Ionesco woke up, completely took over the match and stole it. And Lily faced Li Yu-jhun who, if I remember correctly, beat her the last time they played. Lily won game one and then Li came out and thumped her, winning 4 games straight and the match. Li was just too fast, but I noticed that Lily just about missed every ball to the forehand. Lily has just got to do more speed drills at the training hall...
Amy squeaked out a victory the day before yesterday vs. Anna
Hursey and, in so doing, won a date with Wang Yidi of China, the
no. 4 seed. That match went just as expected--a 4-zip loss. One
thing I wanted to say about Coach Gao--she needs to learn more
about her players' opponents. She was yelling out instructions to
Amy in Chinese apparently not knowing that Anna Hursey is
half-Chinese and can understand. Another European player
like that is Gaia Monfardini of Italy. She looks "European", but
also is half-Chinese and can understand the language. Also, a lot
of the players on the South Korean women's team are
Chinese as well as most of the coaches on the Japanese women's
team. Even the new head coach on the Japanese women's team,
Nakazawa Rui (中澤鋭氏--"na-KA-dza-wa LOO-ee"--in Japanese, "z" =
"dz", as in Italian), is Chinese, which I think is a first. He
speaks Japanese fluently, so he can switch from Chinese to
Japanese when needed. I imagine if his players are playing
against the Chinese, he yells out instructions in Japanese. But,
there's one caveat with that--the great Ma Lin, who coaches on the
Chinese women's team actually speaks some Japanese, so he can
understand.
Anyhow, on a totally different subject, I was watching a doubles
match today involving Shan Xiaona and Adam Bobrow was
"commentating" and noticing for the 1st time that Shan has short
pips on both sides of her racket, but she's a traditional
penholder, so she only hits with one side only. He was wondering
why then does she have rubber on the other side--the side she
doesn't hit with? I think I have an answer to that question.
Have you ever hit with a one-sided (traditional) penhold racket?
It doesn't feel balanced at all, especially if you play with heavy
rubber (like Hurricane) on the one side used for playing. So, a
lot of traditional penholders play with a two-side penhold blade
and they put rubber on the other side, just to make the racket
feel "balanced". And they usually put pips on the other side, bc
pips-out rubber is generally lightweight. Yu Fu of Portugal does
the same thing, I'm guessing for the same reason. Ni Xia Lian of
Luxembourg and Lay Jian Feng of AUS are also traditional
penholders with rubber on both sides, but they twiddle and hit
with whatever is on the forehand.
Anyhow, as for the Americans, the only ones left are Sally
Moyland, the US no. 3 woman, and Brian Afanador & Adriana
Diaz, the PR no. 1 man & woman. Sally plays her next match at
4:40 am on table 5 vs. Bruna Takahashi, the 13th seed and
Brazilian no. 1, Brian plays his next match at 5:30 am vs. Darko
Jorgic, the 11th seed and Adriana plays next at 11 am on table 2
vs. the winner of Huang Yu-chiao and Zeng Jian. The 1st 2 matches
will be tough, but Adriana's match should be another easy win.
She got a very good draw.
Steve Grant
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AJ Scott
Yes, that was Kokou Fanny (sounds like "ko-KOO fan-NEE"), the Togolese no. 1, ranked 181st in the world. He unfortunately drew Alexis Lebrun in the 1st round and got crushed. And then Alexis forfeited in the next round due to injury? I wish when something like that happens, they would bring back the loser in the previous round to play the next round match. It just feels awful when you lose and then the guy you lost to ends up not playing the next round.
Anyhow, I watched the Aruna match live and heard that interaction btw. him and Coach Fanny during the timeout at the end. Fanny sounded like a wise man come down from the mountain. He said exactly what Aruna needed to hear in that moment. Aruna said in the post-game interview that he had lost to Duda to the 2 previous times they played. Coming into the match, I was predicting Duda would win, but then when I saw him walk unto the court, I felt like something wasn't right with him. With all due respect to Aruna, I'm wondering if something was wrong with Duda, bc he had a funny look on his face when he came out during the introductions. I'm wondering, was he sick or injured? Anyhow, here's a highlight vid for those of you who didn't see the match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Azakc7KpU. And here's Aruna's reaction afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U9VUPQmpnc
A few more entertaining matches:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55rQc8FziLY -- Duda/Qiu vs. Karlsson/Falck... Duda had to come back out on court an hour or so later to play a doubles match vs. the 2021 World Champions in doubles. Duda still had that funny look on his face, like he was struggling with something.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3TM3mreVbg
-- Felix Lebrun vs. Oh Jun-sung--two guys who, incredibly, are
still juniors...
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoZ_ny8Hprs -- Lin Gaoyuan vs. Simon Gauzy... Coming into the match, Lin had won the previous 4 times they met. I thought the other matches above were already great, but this one was even greater--this was the match of the day, if not the whole tournament (so far). The shotmaking was unbelievable!
Here's the ITTF write-up on today's action: https://www.ittf.com/2025/05/20/day-4-underway-mixed-doubles-quarterfinalists-decided-as-singles-action-intensifies/
As for the Americans, they're all out now. I was expecting Sally and Brian Afanador to lose their matches, but I thought Adriana Diaz would win easily. Zeng Jian, the Singapore no. 1 (by way of China), came out ready to play and quickly went up 2-0. Then, it appeared Adri raised her game and won Games 3 and 4 comfortably and appeared to be on route to running out Game 5, getting to 10-6, set point. Then, inexplicably, she got cocky and started playing around, trying to do trick shots. She said the day before in an interview that mommy was there in the audience and mommy likes to see the trick shots. Anyhow, Zeng kept her focus and came back and stole Game 5, then Adri blew her off the table 11-6 in Game 6 and then got blown out in the deciding 11-5. Very disappointing--Adri should have won that match 4-2.
Y'know, I really want to cheer on the American players, but it's just so disheartening to see them get a lead and lose in a heartbreaker, like Kanak did yesterday, or Adriana did today, or Lily back at the PanAm Cup 2 months back. She went up 3-2, match point, in the women's final vs. higher-ranked Bruna Takahashi, the Brazilian no. 1, and lost.
Ok, enough complaining--here's tomorrow's schedule: https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3108. There are 2 tables in play and the action starts at 4 am with the Mixed Doubles Quarterfinals. Oh wait, I'm scrolling down the page and I see that the Lebrun bros. will play their round-of-16 match vs. the Swedish pair of Anton Kallberg/Truls Moregard, so, I guess, Alexis Lebrun has fully recovered from his injury from the other day?
Anyhow, Anton Kallberg's girlfriend, Yuan Wan,
lost earlier today in singles, but she's still alive in the
women's doubles--paired with the new German no. 1, Sabine
Winter. They play their next doubles match at 4:40 am on table
1 tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. There's a few good matches
scheduled for tomorrow--Kirill Gerassimenko vs. Hugo Calderano,
Harimoto Miwa vs. Kim Kum-yong who beat Harimoto in the Asian
Championships women's singles final last time they played. I
watched Kim's match yesterday and she's the fastest chopblocker
in the Game now. I don't see Harimoto winning that match
tomorrow... Anyhow, lot's of good matches tomorrow--should be a
blast!
Yeah Kokou, great guy. I hit him once or twice. Congrats to Quadri.
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 5:44 PM Steve Grant <pingpongf...@gmail.com> wrote:
I didn't see it, Wes, but I guess you mean Kokou Fanny. Albert has written about him before and might know.
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 5:24 PM Wesley Maness <wesley...@gmail.com> wrote:
Steve,Did you catch the Quadri Aruna match with Duda ? Who is that coach for Quadri ? Is that the guy from Westchester, from Togo I think ?
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AJ Scott
So, the Worlds ended yesterday with a few historical performances: https://www.ittf.com/2025/05/25/japan-ends-64-year-mens-doubles-drought-as-wang-chuqin-becomes-the-new-world-champion-in-doha/
I can't wait to see this week's ranking update which is due to come out tomorrow, but often appears on Monday nights (which means tonight) after 8 pm.
Anyhow, I hope Hugo Calderano is not bummed out for getting
thumped in the final. I hope gets back to work on improving his
game. I think he and most tall players out there should study
Wang Chuqin's footwork, bc he's is extremely fast for a guy with
long legs.
For those of you following the WTT Tour, the next seniors' event
is WTT Feeder Prishtina starting next Tuesday morning,
June 3rd:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3058&innerselectedTab=Scheduled
[player list]